Today, at 11.00 in the District Court in Warsaw, another hearing was held in the trail against Facebook. The claimant is Maciej Świrski, President of “ Reduta Dobrego Imienia”. The charge in this case is, censorship and discrimination based on nationality, political views and religion.
The portal was sued in a private action in 2016, following the November 11 Independence March. Before the National holiday, accounts and profiles of specific people and institutions disappeared from Facebook’s platform, including those of the organizers of the march.
During the hearing, the President of “RDI” Maciej Świrski submitted an application to modify the charge. In response, Facebook representatives accused the President of Reduta that he did not have the so-called ‘active right’. However, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) confirms that in similar cases the ‘active right’ applies to everyone. In addition, they filed a request not to have the hearing recorded, but the Court did not agree.
Maciej Świrski, “Reduta’s” President, testified during today’s hearing. In his testimony he described Facebook’s discriminatory activity, in relation to conservative and patriotic content. In turn, the journalist Sławomir Jastrzębowski was questioned as a witness, who published information about the Independence March. After this publication, Jastrzębowski’s Facebook account was blocked, due to, the phalanx symbol on the poster promoting the march. This symbol also appears on the Navy’s flag. Having ones account suspended, was and is, a severe obstacle for a professional journalists work. Readers of the Super Express daily newspaper, took this to be a stigma and digital banishment, destroying the freedom of speech.
